Peter Hammill - Still Life Lyrics
Citadel reverberates to a thousand voices, now dumb:what have we become? What have we chosen to be?Now, all history is reduced to the syllables of our name -nothing can ever be the same now the Immortals are here.At the time, it seemed a reasonable courseto harness all the force of life without the threat of death,but soon we foundthat boredom and inertia are not negative,but all the law we knowand dead are Will and words like survival.Arrival at immunity from all age, all fear and all end....Why do I pretend? Our essence is distilledand all familiar taste is now drainedand though purity is maintained it leaves us sterile,living through the millions of years,a laugh as close as any tear....Living, if you claim that all that entails isbreathing, eating, defecating, screwing, drinking,spewing, sleeping, sinking ever down and downand ultimately passing away timewhich no longer has any meaning.Take away the threat of deathand all you're left with is a round of make-believe;marshal every sullen breathand though you're ultimately bored by endless ecstasythat's still the ring by which you hope to be engagedto marry the girl who will give you forever -that's crazy, and plainlyit simply is not enough.What is the dullest and bluntest of pains,such that my eyes never close without feeling it there?What abject despair demands an end to all things of infinity?If we have gained, how do we now meet the cost?What have we bargained, and what have we lost?What have we relinquished, never even knowing it was there?What chance now of holding fast the line,defying death and timewhen everything we had is gone?Everything we laboured for and favoured morethan earthly things reveals the hollow ringof false hope and of false deliverance.But now the nuptial bed is made,the dowry has been paid;the toothless, haggard features of Eternitynow welcome me between the sheetsto couple with her withered body - my wife.Hers forever,hers forever,hers foreverin still life
